The Shark Tank investor believes in a clean car.

Star and car, Naomi Simson, entrepreneur

The Shark Tank investor believes in a clean car.

Star and car, Naomi Simson, entrepreneur

25 Aug 2017Owen Thomson

VITAL STATISTICS1985 – the year I got my first car18 – the number of months I owned it

The lowdown: the hugely successful businessperson, blogger and entrepreneur has a long-standing love of German classics. Career highlights: being the Founding Director of RedBalloon; winning awards including the 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.Current project: featuring as a ‘shark’ on the current series of Shark Tank, screening Tuesday evenings on TEN.

What was your first car?

A 1964 red VW bug. I was living and working in New York and I bought it for $500. I loved it. I called it Bunda, which in Portuguese means bottom, but Bunda Bug just seemed so cute. It was really fantastic. In fact, I remember driving down one of the freeways out of New York City and listening to a pop song of the time with the windows down on a hot summer’s day, and just thinking, ‘I’m a grown up’. It was a fabulous sense of freedom to have a car and be able to go anywhere I wanted to go.

How did you find the whole learning to drive experience?

My dad taught my sister and I to drive in his 180B Datsun. He got so jack of it that he got us RACV lessons. We lived in Victoria. He’s an engineer and he likes everything perfect, so I might not have been that perfect. But I got my licence first time and I’ve had to ever since.

How did you go teaching your own kids to drive?

I actually love the fact that there’s 120-hours of time together with your teenager, side-by-side. I think that it’s a wonderful thing, spending all that time, and the kids wanting to spend time with you. It was great. I loved it.

At the moment I’m doing some driving in a 1961 red convertible Mercedes. I just absolutely love and adore it. My son knows I’ve always wanted a 1964 Mercedes red convertible with white wheels, and every time he sees one he takes a photo and sends it to me. So it’s great to get the chance to get behind the wheel of a car that’s so close to my dream car. It’s so very stylish and classy.

What’s your pet road peeve?

I just think there are too many cars on the road. Getting around Sydney, A to B, it’s no fun. It’s really hard to enjoy it. So I think the thing that bothers me the most is when drivers are distracted, when you can literally see people on their phone and you know that they’re texting or looking at something.

When it comes to car washing, are we talking every weekend, or once-in-a-blue-moon?If I get into a car that’s really, really messy, it doesn’t work for me. I work very hard for the things I have and I respect them. Keeping something neat a tidy is part of that. With a car, the inside is as important as the outside. It’s like looking inside somebody’s home, so that to me is really important. I will take everything out of the car at the end of a trip. I don’t come back and get the tissue or the cup later. I do it at that time. I don’t want to be caught out.